ODST:Chronicles of Reach
by Typoguy101
Summary: to the very few people who read this, Nick Pender will now be known as Jason Rivers. I'm adding a different Nick because I don't want 2 Nicks in the story, so I'll kill off Jason then add in Nick... lol
1. Chapter 1

**ODST: Chronicles of Reach**

**Chapter 1: The past**

I sat in the brush thinking to myself: What have I become? What was I doing here? I dint know the answer yet but I was working on it. I sit next to Erdem as he lay there holding a picture of his wife.

"She's pretty." I say.

"Yeah... but what if I don't make it... and she becomes a widow? What then, Devin? Am I going to die on this planet, alone and scared? I don't want that to happen to her man..."

"God damnit its not gonna end like this, you hear?" I studied the picture of the 19 year old woman, her blonde hair reaching down to her shoulders. "At least you have someone to go home to..." a tear formed in my eye.

"You told me you have a wife..." Erdem said in confusion.

** "**_Had _a wife."

"You never told me the story."

"Well I just got finished serving in the army. I-"

"Wait you of all people, a hard to steel ODST was in the ARMY?"

"I'll tell you later. But back, 2 years ago the covenant found the planet we'd been living on. It was our first contact and we didn't know what the hell they were.

"Honey you seen my towel?" I yelled to Linda after I stepped out of the shower.

"Should be under the sink" she yelled back. I reached down and found it where she said, and wrapped it around my waist stepping into the living room to see Linda holding Ross, our 3 year old son. I smiled as he waved. "I'm glad you're home honey." id just gotten back 5 hours ago from service. I hung my uniform in the closet and my sidearm in a box sealed under my bed.

"Glad to be back. Sgt O'Brien was on my ass about leaving, said to consider staying another year I turned him down though." I pointed to my ankle which I hadn't showed her yet there was stitching there. "Got shot by rioters but my squad opened fire... medics patched me up and sent me home on wounded in action and shipped me back. I told O'Brien I wasn't risking THAT again."

"You got shot?"

"It's not a big deal I'm fine." Ross gave mom a pouty look. "hon, not in front of Ross."

"Look I'm just glad you're back." she set Ross down and walked over and kissed me. "Please no more danger for a time okay? You can save the day another day." she smiled.

Suddenly the ground shook and I heard screams outside.

"The hell?" I said going into my room and throwing on my pants and sweatshirt. I stepped outside the door of our apartment to see the street filled with civilians screaming and pointing to the sky. I looked and saw nothing I've ever seen before. "Holy shit..." up above the sky scrapers was an alien ship!"Jesus h. Christ!" I ran back to the door of our apartment complex to see Alan, our next door 75 year old neighbor, stepping out with a shotgun.

"God damn I knew the day would come!" he ranted. Alan was a conspirator on aliens... looks like he proved himself right. "I'm gonna teach you a lesson or two ya hear?" he hollered at the ship.

"Mr. Warden I don't think- fuck it!" I said running back inside. I slipped on my black BDUs from my service and retrieved my M6S magnum and combat knife from under the bed. Linda's eyes widened.

"Honey where the FUCK do you think you're going?"

"Saving the world I hope!" I ran out the door to see Alan ranting and holding his shotgun. He aimed it at the hull of the ship.

"Suck on this you alien basterds!" he yelled and fired.

"MR. WARDEN NO!" the pellets flickered against the shields of the cruiser and for a second nothing happened. But then on the underside of the ship a gun of sorts popped out and charged a beam. I looked at my apartment, a hundred feet away maybe because I went to help some locals. "LINDA ROSS!" I rushed towards the house but an explosion rippled the building and blew it to pieces. I was knocked back and hit my head on the concrete. I sat up and looked at the apartment, tears strolling down my cheeks. I looked over at the ship and another beam of sorts, not a weapon, carried aliens down. 1 had four split lips and three miniature aliens with tanks on their backs connected to a mask on their faces. Artificial breathing. They shot down some of the civilians and spread out, the minis went left and the splity went right to look inside "Nate's convenience store." I rushed over to the minis and screamed "YOU MOTHER FUCKERS!" I bashed one in the face with my fist and grabbed the mask, ripping it off, he started to suffocate. One started to run and the other raised a small pistol and went to pull the trigger. Just as he did I knocked it out of his hands and it discharged a green burst if plasma? I pulled out my knife and stabbed him in the throat, blue blood oozing out of the wound and I pulled it out and let him fall to the ground. I threw the knife at the runner and it stabbed him through the back of the head. The splity saw and I didn't have time to retrieve my knife so I pulled out my pistol and aimed at his head. I squeezed the trigger and thought "easy" but it pinged off a... shield? My expression changed to fear, and I pulled the trigger multiple times. Finally his shields dropped and I squeezed the trigger one more time only to hear it click... out of ammo. He slowly walked towards me, his shields recharged, and drew out a blue sword of energy. He grasped my throat with his massive hands, and stood 7 feet tall. He spoke something in his tongue and then raised the sword preparing to stab me. Suddenly, his head flew off his shoulders and his body slumped and toppled. I looked to see an ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) standing holding a smoking sniper rifle. Two warthogs, military transport, came driving at me followed by at least 50 more ODSTs. One of the hogs stopped and a trooper stepped out. He eyed my uniform.

"Name rank and assignment." he said firmly.

"Sir, Sergeant Devin T. Belote sir! No assignment I'm retired sir!" I said sharply.

"Not anymore you're not." he handed me an MA5C assault rifle. "Welcome to the ODSTs. We're takin every man we can get and you happen to suit or needs. You'll report to sergeant Zachery O'Brien to-"

"Wait, O'Brien? I just saw him 5 hours ago."

"Good. A little reunion. Now get you're ass in the Hog and stop wasting my time." the Hog was outfitted with a back end instead of a turret, so it could hole up to five passengers. I climbed in and sat next to a Marine. Hodgins was his name. I looked back at the smoldering wreckage and frowned. I looked and saw on a smoldering piece of wood, the item melting away, Ross' teddy bear...

"So you had a kid? That su-" I looked at erdem. "That's... some bad news... I'm sorry." I suddenly heard noises, growling, in the distance. Since our armor was black we wouldn't be spotted by whatever was out there but we would still take caution. The SPARTAN, Mat, I kicked the man's armor to get him awake.

"What?" he whispered.

"Ever heard that expression 'when the shit hits the fan it's gonna get messy?"

"Yeah why?" I pointed to the large wave of covenant troops.

"It just hit it."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Shoot 'n' Scoot

"OPEN FIRE!" I yelled as the elites aimed at our positions. I raised my m7s and squeezed on the trigger, the armor piercing rounds ripping through one of the splities shields and the rest of the shots impacting his skull, taking him down instantly. Mat opened up with an assault rifle while erdem took up the sniper. Nick held his shotgun close and waited for grunts to get close enough to where he could do some damage.

"How come you assholes get all the fun?" he yelled.

"Chose a better weapon Nick!" I yelled back. A Plasma rifle round hit my chest burning a small hole through the plating. The SPARTANs shields ignored the shots and whenever a needle from one of their needle rifles implanted itself in mats armor, it just burst into pieces. His shields flickered and died though and he got down behind the log we were covered in. 30 enemies left and I was low on ammo. I took out my suppressed m6 pistol and fired at the grunts heads. They didn't have any shields and the rounds pierced them causing great damage. One shot one kill. I tossed a frag grenade over and it rolled perfectly into a group of jackals. They looked at one another just before being blown into pieces, purple blood spraying on their comrades. Only 3 elites and 10 grunts left so we climbed over the log and rushed them firing out automatic weapons. One of the elites pulled out a sword and tried to swing at me but I countered by ducking and punching his massive bodies ribs. I delivered a few punches to the jaw and he tried to stab me so I jumped back, grabbed his arm and twisted it and kicked the side of his head while taking the sword from him. I stabbed his neck and shoved the body off me. Erdem pulled a combat knife and stabbed a grunt in the methane tank releasing the cause and letting him suffocate and then sliced of an elites hand when he tried to grab him. He then stabbed his chest right through one of its 2 hearts. He'd bleed out eventually as he lay there. The SPARTAN… well he didn't even need a weapon. He ripped the head of a grunt right of its shoulders and beat another one with it while shooting an elite with a pistol and had his boot on a grunts throat that lay under him. We finished off the rest of the grunts and nick walked over to an elite trying to crawl. He kicked the alien in the stomach turning him over and shoved the shotgun in his throat.

"Don't FUCK with our planet." Nick said as he squeezed the trigger. "Let that be a lesson to you." He spat on his blue armor.

"okay enemies must have heard those shots and we can probably guess that one of them called for reinforcements so we'd better get moving if we're gonna reach that base in time." Mat said. We jogged through the woods, checking each time we went down or up a hill. An enemy patrol passed without noticing us and we let them clear. The base came into sight, a large fence surrounding the perimeter and two elites stood guard. I grabbed my sniper rifle and Erdem grabbed his.

"Okay on the count of three we dual snipe the bastards." I said scoping the one on the left. "One…two…three!" I squeezed the trigger just as Erdem did, and both their heads flew off their shoulders and they dropped. A lone Grunt checked it out and I sniped him too. "Three down, and a helluvalot more to go." I headed down the hill first and slowly crouched-ran towards the opening, past the three dead guards. Erdem, Mat, and Nick followed close behind. A few feet ahead a Grunt look out stood and I slowly came up behind him with a combat knife. I raised it high up and was about to stab him when his comm. activated. I heard an Elites tongue and the Grunt yelped something in reply and headed towards the hanger which stood 150ft away. "What was that about?"

"Codename:Tech"

"Tech." The Shang'hili said my name. "Why don't you make yourself useful and find out what this blasted contraption is!" I looked at the human rifle he was holding and sighed.

"Matyus, it's a rifle used by the humans, created in the year 2467 using 6.46 caliber rounds and sometimes armor piercing to effectually take down targets." I replied. He looked at me though as I was crazy.

"Eh go find someone else to bother."

"Need I remind you that you are the one that asked?"

"You dare mock your superiors?" I eyed his polish golden armor signifying he was in command while my... plain blue armor with multiple scratches and burn marks showed I was still cannon fodder. I held my plasma rifle tight and walked to the southern side of the human hanger, many large ships crowding the way. An Unggoy (which the humans called Grunts) headed towards me. His name was Yapyap but he was always quiet so we called him Sneaky Yapyap.

"Hello Sneaky." I greeted him.

"Leave me alone." He said stubbornly.

"Something wrong?"

"Kig'yar laugh at me. Human prisoner scare me and I accidentally wet myself." I placed my hand on his shoulder.

"Do not fear the humans. One day they will learn that the Covenant is superior to them, brother."

"Yeah I guess..."

"Now run along. It's almost feeding time and you don't want to miss your chance on the teat like you did last time."  
"Thanks Tech." He smiled under his methane mask and left towards our makeshift mess hall. Martyus walked over to me.

"Do not show him comfort. He will die like those before him." He said to me. I frowned and looked at him.

"And you won't?" I replied sharply before walking towards one of the human vessels titled "Pelican." Suddenly I heard Ach'ly, a Kig'yar, yelp and scream: "HUMANS!" I turned to see unarmored humans, the prisoners we'd captured, standing holding their rifles. Thy gunned down poor Ach'ly, One of them turned his attention to me and I leveled my plasma rifle to his head. I let off the round and it struck his face, melting the flesh and searing the bone. He screamed as he fired at me, my shields deflecting the bullets. I ducked behind cover along with Martyus and the humans took cover as well. Dozens of Yanme'e flew overhead of them, firing their plasma pistols, but were soon dead once the humans showed them what automatic fire meant. I chucked a plasma grenade over but they dodged the blast into more cover. These humans shouldn't be a problem though. There weren't any more of them and they were unarmored. I went to take a shot at one of them, when the hanger doors suddenly opened. Someone must have called for reinforcements. When it opened I saw an Unggoy and motioned him towards us. But he didn't move. In fact, he toppled over, blood spilling from his throat. The door opened completely and I saw a 7 foot tall green armored figure standing, holding a knife caked in blue blood. One of the human monsters they called "SPARTANs".

"DEMON!" I hollered to my comrades and all attention turned to the SPARTAN. More humans poured in, three, aiming weapons at us. One of them, the leader of the black armored troops, spoke.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." He said as he scanned us. All the fire, from humans and Covenant, stopped. "Drop your weapons and surrender and we _might_ let you live... as lab rats." One of the other humans, a man with a shotgun, turned to him.

"You know they can't understand you, correct?" He said. I stood and lowered my weapon.

"Oh I can hear you just fine, human." I spoke in their language. "I am ot prepared to die at those who do not follow the path of the Gods. I shall put my foot between your gums and crush your pathetic human skull." I roared, my four lips opening up as I drew my energy sword. I charged at them, and they stood in a defensive stance. The leader dropped his gun and pulled out a long black blade sheathed at his side. He raised it up and prepared. I swung at him but he countered and sliced at my leg. My armor blocked it. I took a stab but he dodged that too, and this time managed to cut my side. I roared and lunged with my shoulder and knocked him over, he droped his sword. One of his teammates tried to help but I kicked him aside, he groaned as my foot hit his stomach. The leader I was wrestling shoved me off and stood up, but I quickly lunged at him and stabbed with my sword. I felt it go through his flesh and I pushed harder. Success! But I turned my head to see him laying on the ground to the left, holding his pistol, aiming at my head.

"OOF!" I said as I hit the ground. Something knocked me over and I drew my pistol and aimed at the Elite. "OH shit-" I looked as Mat stood where I once did, the plasma sword entering then leaving through his chest. I opened up with the pistol and took down the Elites shields but he quickly somersaulted backwards and leaped to cover. The aliens were in awe as Mat fell over. So did my squad. For a minute, everything was silent. Then, all the aliens cheered. My squad wheeled around from Mats body and opened fire on the aliens, taking them sort of by surprise. I chucked a grenade behind a group of fusion coils and they exploded, blowing up a few Grunts and the pieces acting as shrapnel, flying and stabing aliens in their skin. I saw an Elite with gold armor behind a crate firing. The human prisoners fired at him and dropped his shields. I whipped up my pistol and aimed for the head. I squeezed the trigger and his skull bled as the bullet pierced through. As expected, Grunts and Jackals yelped. They screamed out words I couldn't understand and ran around in circles. The last of the Grunts, Jackals, and Elites dropped and the room went silent. I scanned the area for the Elite who took down Mat and couldn't find his body. He must have escaped. I looked over at the Marines who'd broken out and they headed towards us.

"Sir, we're what's left of Echo squad. We were here guarding the base when they hit us by surprise. They took out most of the main guards and held the rest of us prisoners... I heard they were gonna take us back to their ship, disect us and whatnot..."The man said.

"Good thing you got here in time sir. We woulda been toast!" Another Marine spoke up. "Name's Donnovitch, but everyone calls me Donny. This here's Carter." He pointed at a blond haired man, the guy I talked to before. "And this is O'Brien." He pointed at a man in the corner, loading his weapon.

"Zachery O'Brien?" I asked.

"Yeah why?" I walked over and taped him on the shoulder.

"Yeah?" He muttered and looked at me. I removed my helmet and his jaw dropped. "Devin? Ha! Never thought I'd see you of all people anytime soon!"

"Yeah well, I got an assignment to investigate possible survivors. You guys are comin' with us."

"Good thing. I didn't know what they were gonna do to us..." He eyed Mats body. "Damn I'm sorry bout your friend there."  
"We're gonna have to leave him here. We can't manage to hull a one ton body around with us."

"Understandable."

"C'mon let's move out, 'fore anymore Covies show to crash the party." Donny said. Three ODSTs and three Marines could handle a small group of Covie but with Mat gone we'd have to be cautious. We exited the base and headed back to the forest, maneuvering back through the trails and occasionally having to hold for patrols to come through. The sun began to rise, and we'd be easier to spot so we laid low while Erdem climbed up a tree and spotted with his sniper rifle.

"Two tangos ahead, one Grunt one Jackal. Jackals got a needler rifle and grunt carries dual plasma pistols. Permission to fire?"

I thought a moment to take in account of surroundings. No ambush points and he had a clear shot and if one tried to run, he'd easily drop him. No cover nearby in the field they were standing in.

"Granted."

"Sneaky Yapyap"

"So you got out of there just in time?" Yahj'in asked, the Jackal Kig'yar concerned.

"Humans everywhere! I thought I was a goner! And the Demon... he killed EVERYONE. 'Tech' and I escaped but we got separated." I replied.

"I just came here to take a piss but I'll bring you back to our patrol group."

"Sure. Thank you Yahj'in."

"No pro-" Suddenly a bullet hit him in the head and he fell over, bleeding.

"AHHH!" Another bullet struck near me but it hit the ground at my feet. I began to run as another bullet hit the bush next to me. If only I could make it to the tall grass in time, they couldn't get me. A shot pierced my leg and I yelped but continued to limp. I dove into the grass and started to crawl. "Please don't get me, please don't get me, please don't get me!" I whispered to myself. I saw the grass ahead move. OH god, more of them!" I ducked down and huddled, waiting for my death. I turned and saw a Sanghili standing. "Please help! Humans! Help me!" I latched on to him.

"Wretched filth, get off of me!" He shook me loose. "I'll deal with the humans myself!" He exited the grass and I didn't even hear plasma fire from him. I heard the human weapons firing, and the Sanghili yelling and a thud. I elped and began running, until I burst out the exit and into a camp filled with Kig'yar, Sanghili, and Unggoy. "Humans! Take position! Quick!" They grabed their wepons and stood ready. I sighed with relief and grasped my plasma pistol and waited for the humans to come into our trap.

"You call that sniping?" I said as Erdem climbed down. "Okay now we gotta move around em'. Take caution." We slowly maneuvered around the large grass and up a steep hill where we'd then head north to call for an evac. "Okay, I'll signal the Hawk now." I opened a secure commlink. "Foehammer, this is Devin, do your read, over?"

"Roger that Alpha, I have a fix on your position and am on my way now. Get set, cause' I see multiple tangos converging on your position. Over." I heard Foehammers female voice in the radio.

"Roger that Foehammer. Okay you heard the lady, set up defensive perimeters around this area here." I pointed to an area with lots of large rocks for cover. It'll be ten minutes at most so I want this area tighter than a Ziploc bag, you hearin' me troopers?"

"Hooah!" Erdem, Nick, and the Marines shouted.

"I sat back against a rock along with Erdem, Nick, and the Marines, and kept out of sight of the trail. My H.U.D. showed three Elites heading up the hill, talking. Just a patrol. I taped Erdem and pointed to the one in back and crossed my forearms and balled my hands into fists, signaling melee kill. The leader got close to the rocks, and peered over the edge looking directly at my shiny knife blade. I stabbed him in the throat and pulled his body behind cover. Erdem came up behind the other Elite and snapped its neck, and the other didn't even notice when I slit his throat, blood spilling out and staining the ground. One of their comms clicked, and I heard the voice of a Brute.

"They're gonna know." Nick said, although I already guessed that.

"Get back behind the rocks, I have a plan." I grabbed two of the Elites bodies and dragged them into the woods and brought the last one behind the rocks, the one with the broken neck. I straightened it out and grabbed his commlink and a wire from my backpack, and grabbed my commlink and unstictched the wires from their casings. I cut a small hole in the aliens throat and stuck my comm. Inside his throat and felt for his voice box. Once found, with one finger I reached in and wrapped it around and pushed a part of the wire into the voice box, then spoke into the aliens comm. "Testing." I said, and the dead Elite spoke.

"Where the Hell did you learn that?" Erdem asked.

"I had a friend, used to work in the labs back in the ONI facility. He taught me that trick and I never thought it'd come to good use." I ducked behind the rock and propped the Elite up, and I heard bushes rustling so I spoke into the comm. "All clear here sir. The others had to piss, and I'm waiting for them to get back." Suddenly, I heard suppressed gunfire, and the Elite got peppered with bullets. I let him go and he droped. Donny went to stand and fire but I pushed him back down. I slowly stood up, hands raised, weapons holstered. I saw a figure standing, aiming a suppressed MA5C assault rifle at me. He lowered it, and revealed it was actually a she. She wore ODST body armor, a black balaclava and a black Marine helmet… mercenary?

"You Alpha squad?" She asked.

"May I just ask who you are?"

"Can it. I'm here to bring you back."

"No, you're not. Foehammers already covering that."

"Tell her to turn around now. Covie triple As got this area locked down tight, and they know you're here so we best get movin if you wanna live to get your next assignment, and trust me you won't wanna miss this one."

"How do you know my assignments? Unless you're-"

"Yep, I'm ONI. Names Veronica, but you call me Dare, gotcha'?"

"Yes ma'me." I said. I turned to my squad. "C'mon, you heard her, let's move out." I turned on my comm.. "Foehammer, this is Alpha, do not come for extraction. Repeat, do NOT extract, Covie's got actice triple A and we can't risk anymore pilots. Pull back to base for debriefing and tell the C.O. we're gonna be a little delayed. Over?"

"Roger that Alpha. Foehammer, out." I eyed Dare, who was moving North into the woods. I whistled at my men and pointed, and we started jogging over to her. We moved through the woods for about ten minutes when Dare knelt down and held up her fist, signaling a halt. I eyed Erdem and Nick and the others and I flicked my wrist, pointing them east, where there was some cover under the bushes. I moved next to Dare.

"Whatcha' figure?" I asked.

"Brutes, three, northwest." I clicked on my VISR, which would outline friendly contacts with green and enemies with red. I looked northwest, and nothing showed up.

"I got nothin'. Eyes are on northwest but no contacts."I told her. She grabbed my helmet and took it off.

"Don't trust your equipment here in the woods. To much cover for them to scan through. Use your eyes, Devin." She instructed. I squinted off in the distance, and saw brown fur, Brutes. She was correct. But I eyed one of them and saw…

"Shit, Gravity Hammer. There's a chieftain out there." I signaled my squad. "Chieftain, northwest, 200 yards, along with two minors. Tighten formation and get secured into cover. Ambush and take out Big Boy first." I saw them getting closer. "Get into position." I ducked behind a rock and eyed the Brutes, the chieftain signaling a halt, and he sniffed the air. He turned to the others and barked some orders, most likely spreading them out. They knew we were close, just not where. One of the minors got close to my position and sniffed. He went to yell something but I jumped up and onto his back and covered his mouth. I unsheathed my knife and stabbed him in the neck. His roar was muffled, and I had to stab him more, but he wouldn't let up. I pushed him down, and tried to stab him again, but he flipped me over and kneed me in the gut. "OOF!" He went to yell again, but I jabed my fingers into his throat, and he struggled to talk. I pushed him off me, and he got to his feet, so did I. I stood with my fists raised, and slightly half hoping as I waited. "You wanna go? Bring it! I'm an ODST! You got nothing on me!" he grinned. "The Hell you grinning at?" I turned and saw his comrade, the other minor, and he raised his spiker, a pistol that fired foot long orange spkies. He fired a round at me but I dodged and it hit the other in the chest. He roared, sorely from my punch to his throat, and tried to punch me, but hit his friend. They both growled at eachother and looked at me. I whipped up my pistol and fired off a few rounds, but their shields deflected the shots, but also wore away the energy, causing it to fail. One last shot in the chamber went into the second Brutes head, and I had to reload rather quickly but I dropped my clip. The first Brute roared at me and went to punch me, but I threw the pistol at him and it hit his face and bounced off. I grabbed the magazine from the ground and jumped on top of the Brute and jumping over him, snatching the pistol from the air and putting the clip inside. I hit the ground and did a somersault and turned, squeezed the trigger, and watch the bullet enter his chest, hitting his heart. I looked over and saw the chieftain, still unaware of his fallen squadmates or my about-to-ambush-him team, and he still searched. I slowly crouch-ran towards him. I saw Donny ready to strike, and I nodded at him. He and the Marines jumped over the rocks, firing their assault rifles. I came up behind the surprised chieftain and tapped his shoulder. He turned to quickly face me and I punched him in the jaw, as hard as I could, and I heard it snap. He yelped in pain and grabbed it, and I delivered a punch to his face, and he almost fell over. The assault rifles bullets took longer on his shields, because they were upgraded, so I retrieved my suppressed SMG and peppered his armor, bringing his shields down. Donny shot his knees, and he dropped slightly. He swung his hammer, and I jumped at Donny before it hit him. Instead it hit the ground near Carter. He flew back, and hit his skull on the tree, it cracked open and he fell into the bushes. I stepped onto his head and forced it to the ground, and stuck my SMG to his face, firing the entire clip into him. Everything was silent, except for my panting. Dare came over to me.

"Damn it, Devin! You should have waited for them to pass!"

"They had our scent and they would've reported us for sure. We had to take them out." I replied.

"We lost a Marine!"

"Being a leader comes with great sacrifice. You're not a leader." I brushed past her and signaled the others. "We're Oscar Mike, people, let's go." I yelled. "Brute's got our scent and we gotta be home 'fore they even think about taking a bite out of an ODST. So unless you wanna end up Brute chow, we're shippin' out."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: An Investigation

"What do you mean 'you're next assignment will be interesting?'" I asked Dare as we walked through the barracks or the UNSC base. We'd been transported by Hawk about 45 minutes after our "pleasant" meet up with the Chieftain.

"You'll see once you're on it but for now, get some rest. We head to the rendezvous point shortly after 0900 tomorrow, so be prepped and ready."

"Ma'me, yes ma'me!" I saluted. Cannot BELIEVE I'm taking orders from her! I laid in my bunk and slowly drifted I and out of sleep. Erdem tapped me on the shoulder from the bunk above.

"You okay, man? You look… tired. Get some sleep." He said to me.

"I'm just trying to figure out what Dare meant… but I guess we'll find out tomorrow. Good night."

"Night." He turned over and fell asleep. So did I.

0830 came and I sat up as my alarm rang. I pushed the button to shut the damn thing off and got up, my black/grey cargo pants still on and a tanktop. My BDU jacket hung on the pole next to my pillow and I slipped it on and headed to the bathroom. I splashed some water on my face and let my hair hang over the dirty sink, water dripping off and falling into the brown water. I felt tired but dragged myself to my foortlocker at the foot of my bed and took out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. I stood outside in the early Reach air, the smoke raising into the sky only to separate and vanish. After a few minutes I let the cig fall to the ground and I stomped it with my combat boots, and headed back inside. Erdem was starting to wake up and I playfully punched his gut. "

"Wake up sunshine, we got aliens to send to Covie Heaven." I said grinning.

"Ughhh…. Ten more minutes

"C'mon, it's another great day to die." I headed into the armory and opened the locker marked "SGT. Devin T. Belote" and slipped into my standard black ODST armor, and held my helmet in my hand. I grabbed my M7S SMG, the holographic sight and laser pointer attached along with a suppresser, and grabbed my M6S pistol and holstered them. Dare met me outside with Erdem and Nick, who were also ready. Dare wore her same uniform from yesterday. "Kay, what's the plan?"

"We're heading for a small, abandoned rebel outpost to the south. It's in the old town of Sanctuary. It's been reduced to rubble so we shouldn't have anyone waiting there for us."

A Hawk landed near us, and we climbed aboard and sat on some of the seats. Nick manned the gun turret and Dare manned the other. The pilot called back to us.

"It'll be about ten minutes 'till we reach Sanctuary, so take a breather." He said. I layed back and shut my eyes, thinking of Linda and Ross. I missed them, but I knew there was nothing I could to to bring them back. Then I thought of home. I'd been on Harvest, an outer colony, before it got glassed by the Covenant. When they glassed a planet, they'd fire superheated lasers into the ground, digging a hole to reach the core of the planet. Then, boom. The planet got obliterated, and turned to glass, the heat crystallizing the soul. Harvest was my life. Now it was gone. Erdem nudged me and pointed out the opening on the side of the Hawk, it touched the pavement of the large, abandoned city, skyscrapers were all around and a tree wasn't in sight. We were now in the urban jungle. I stepped onto the concrete and aimed my SMG, Erdem aimed his MA5C Assault rifle, and Dare aimed her DBR, a single shot, armor piercing rifle. It could rip your head right off your shoulders. The Hawk lifted into the air and headed back to base, leaving us without a single sound or movement.

"Move out." Dare said. Erdem and I went in one direction, the North, and Dare and Nick went East, towards a series of crumbling structures. "We'll link up once the area is secure at the town square." I checked my H.U.D. and saw that the square was only 500 ft from my current position. Helmet G.P.S. showed that the city was like any other here on Reach: 2 miles East, 2 miles west, 2 miles North, 2 miles south. Small, yet big at the same time. I kicked open a door to a convenience store and quickly snapped my arm back and fourth, scanning. Part of the roof caved in and blocked a back door to a storage room, but we might be able to move some of the smaller pieces and squeeze through. We moved a few large pieces, then all that were left were small chucks. After a couple minutes, our hole was big enough to crawl through. I turned to Erdem.

"I'd like to see you fit your fat ass through there." I joked. He turned off his visor showing his face to let me know he was grinning. He then reactivated it, the black visor hiding his face. I squeezed through and as I lay, half inside, I opened the door, and then slithered the rest of the way through, falling into the room. I quickly stood up and turned on my helmet mounted flashlight. There was a staircase a few feet ahead. "Erdem, we got stairs leading to… shit my light doesn't go that far. C'mon through." I moved and let him come in. I crouched and pressed my fingers to my helmets "lips" and motioned him down. We slowly headed downstairs, and I saw the bottom. I deactivated my light when I saw a shine coming from underneath a door to the right. I leaned up against the wall to the left of the door, Erdem on the right. He nodded, and I kicked it opened and ran inside, aiming my SMG. Two humans, a male and femal, stood up and grabbed shotguns. I aimed at the male. "Drop it!"

"Not until you tell us who you are!" He replied.

We're ODSTs, we're here to investigate… something. We weren't exactly filled in on our op." He still didn't lower the gun. "Okay. Drop it."

"I still don't trust you." I aimed at his leg.

"You wanna walk outta here or limp?" He slowly lowered the shotgun, and handed to me. I kicked it into the hall. "Name's Devin, this is Erdem. Our partners Dare and Nick are on the other side of town. We'll bring you to em' and you guys can get some evac."

"Oh no, we ain't goin' out there. There were Covenant out there, 'bout an hour ago." I frowned and activated my comm..

"Dare, Nick, come in We have a possible hostile situation. Locals say there were patrols about an hour ago. Keep a sharp eye for tangos. The Mike Foxtrots are bound to be somewhere. Out." I turned to the civilians. "We can't just leave you down here. You're comin' with us."

"You and the others clear the town, then we'll come out, okay?"

"Is there anything else of interest down here?"

"Down further is a storage room with some supplies but that won't be much use to you."

"Alright, thanks for your help. We'll be back to collect you within the hour." We headed back up the stairs and through the hole again. The streets were caked with dirt as our boots continued to walk through the abandoned area. I saw an apartment building, crumbled to the ground. It reminded me of Linda and Ross…

"Crap! Devin!" I heard Erdem hiss. He pointed to a Wraith, a Covenant tank that fired a plasma charge that explodes on impact. I activated my comm..

"Dare, confirmation on the Covies. We got a Wraith at the south entrance of the town and we are weapons hot and ready to engage if necessary. Awaiting orders." I waited for a response. "Dare?" I heard gunfire on the other end, and the Wraith turned East and fired a burst of plasma. "Damn! Erdem, move! We're takin; this S.O.B. out!" I rushed forward, firing my SMG, Erdem his assault rifle. We saw two dozen grunts and 10 Elites follow behind the Wraith. "Concentrate on the infantry first, but avoid the Wraith!" I shouted over an explosion behind us. I ran right and distracted the Wraith so he'd fir on me, giving Erdem a chance to take down the infantry. He tossed a frag over and it landed near half the damn Grunts. Blue blood splattered everywhere. Erdem took out three Elites with a single clip, then switched to his pistol. I ripped through an Elites Elites and the rest of the Grunts. Six Elites and that Wraith remained. I rushed and fired a few rounds out of my pistol, then turned it around and bashed an Elite in the face with it. I ran and punched another one then slid under a second and grabbed him, pulling him in front of the last Elite who hadn't had his ass handed to him yet. He pulled the trigger, but the plasma shots hit his partner, burning his skin. He roared loudly and I took his energy sword from his leg and activated it, stabbing him in the back. The sword went through just enough to where the blades stuck out of his stomach, and I rushed towards the last Elite and slammed into him, the sword also piercing his stomach and killing him. Erdem ran at the Wraith and jumped up on top of it, yanking the hatch open and sticking his assault rifle down and firing, purple blood sprayed his armor as he shot the alien point blank. I saw Dare and Nick running towards us. "C'mon, we gotta' move to the rebel base before more Covies show up!" We sprinted after Dare, who led us to a crumbling structure, adorned with red flags with a clenched fist marking the rebels insignia. The entrance was no trouble getting past, and we set a few mines down to either A: Scare the Covie bastards that got to close. Or B: kill any Covie willing to get close enough. Once we went down a long hallway, we cam to a control room, where some steps led to an overlooking command station. Nobody in Sanctuary would have suspected the rebels to be here. They played it smart. To bad the Covies killed them before we got the chance. Dare used the main computer and searched the files. "So Dare, uh… what exactly _is_ our mission here?"

"Top secret but they insisted I bring you along. We're to find information about the last seen Covenant forces in the area, see if we can find any audio or video files and backtrace it to the source and find out when and where the next attack is scheduled. ONI brass got reports that the civilians reported strange shapes in the sky, and then explosions and fire. I'm guessing Covenant. That means they got a ship. A ship that could be back at anytime, anywhere, any place. And we could take down that thing."

""we're gonna try and take down a Covenant cruiser? How insane does that sound? Nick, how freakin' insane is that?"

"Very."He cocked his shotgun. "But I'll give it a shot."

"There's no guarantees, okay?" Dare said. The computer beeped. "Got something." I walked over to the terminal, and she pressed a button, showing a security camera recording from the hallway. There were to guards standing watch at the closed door. Suddenly, one of them just dropped, blood spurting from his throat. The other guard freaked and tried to call for help, but the Elite appeared out of active camo and still had his wrist mounted plasma dagger out. He lunged and stabbed the other guard in the throat, raising him in the air. He flicked his arm and sent his body flying. The wound didn't kill him, he just lay there, bleeding out. The next security cam showed the rest of the rebels in the room where we were in now. Four people stood at the command console, looking at space charts and mapping courses. A needle from a needle rifle struck a man in the forehead, and he fell over. The others immediately raised assault rifles and fired into wherever the shot came from. One of them started yelling out curse words, and firing in all directions. The Elites shields flickered, and they all turned attention to the shimmer that moved across the room. The Elite grabbed a rabel and activated his sword in front of him. The rebels dropped their weapons and raised their hands. I saw a shimmer behind each rebel.

"Oh, no, no, no." I half said, half groaned. An energy sword sliced through each person's back, and they fell over. The Elites moved the bodies into a storage closet 30ft from where I was standing. The Elites didn't exit the base. They stayed right there. I fast forwarded the video, and they kept patrolling. I turned to Dare. "What time did we enter the base?"

"0840, why?" She replied. The time under the screen read the security cam at 0839, the Elites are still here.

"Everybody…. Stay…. Calm. Hostiles in the area. We're gonna have to move." I whispered.

"But the data! I need to-" Dare was yanked back, and dragged. "HELP!" I raised my SMG but it was knocked out of my hand. I was grabbed, and then thrown to the ground. My helmet flew off my head. I rolled over and stood up, grabbing my black bladed bowie knife. I saw a shimmer about to swing at me so I ducked, and delivered a stab to the rib. Purple blood stained my knife. Good. I went for another stab, but he grabbed my arm and twisted it around, dislocating it. "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed, and tried to punch him, but he grabbed my left arm and brought them both behind my back, cuffing them with plasma binders (handcuffs for aliens.) He threw me on the ground next to Dare, and my head hit the ground, knocking me unconscious. The last thing I remembered was Erdem and Nick firing their rifles, and backing into the exit. Erdem shouted out.

"Devin! We'll come back for you!"

I doubted they'd get the chance.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Familiar Faces

"Get up you wretched human filth!" An Elite said as he lifted me off the floor of the phantom transport. A grav lift carried us down into the hanger of the large Covenant cruiser, which was in space above Reaches atmosphere. The Elite carried Dare, and pushed me, forcing me to walk. A large door ahead opened up an elevator, which carried us to a large hallway with cells, a plasma shield blocking the exit of each one. Any person to step through one, they would be disintegrated. I saw many Marines being held in cells, some crying, others shouting in anger at the guards. And some… were not right… They laughed loudly and mumbled words in a language I couldn't understand. The Elite activated a control panel, and a cell door opened. He shoved me inside, letting me fall to the ground. He then threw Dare in, but I caught her, making sure she wouldn't hit her head again. The Elite laughed, reactivated the shield, then walked away. Great, we had absolutely no hope of escape. I'd been stripped of my armor and just wore my BDUs, same as Dare. I lay back and just… sat there… what now? They just planned to keep us here until we die? Or were they going to use us for experiments? I had to figure a way out of here. I eyed the panel outside the door. If I could get an object passed, something hard, I could bust the panel and get outta' here. But I'd have to wait until Dare woke up. After an hour, Dare still wasn't awake. An Elite came up to the door and deactivated it.

"Come with me, human." He said. I stood up and followed the massive Elite down the hall.

"So what do you plan to do with me and my friend?" I asked.

"Whatever we wish. Do not question the High Prophet of Truth."

"You wanna go tough guy cause' I can bring you down. I don't care 'bout these guards I will bring you do-"He turned and punched me in the gut, and I dropped to my knees. He began to drag me.

"There. Is this better?" He dragged me up until there were two guards in ceremonial armor, holding staffs with a pointed tip, greeted me. They parted, and allowed access to the room. Inside were three aliens that floated in hover chairs. The Elite dropped me and knelt before the one in the center. "Here he is, High Prophet of Truth."

"Good work Tsau'i. Return to your post." The Elite exited the room, leaving the four of us.

"You don't recognize him, do you?" Truth asked me.

"No." I said in confusion.

"You killed many of his friends down on the surface at the SPARTAN facility. He wants revenge. Give me a good reason why I shouldn't give him the chance."

"Cause' if he tries I'll snap his neck, take his weapons, kill you and the other assholes first then I blow up your ship and go with it, thus killing the 'High Prophet of Truth', I guess the war's over."

He was silent a moment, but then started to laugh. He laughed historically.

"You honestly think you can blow up this ship before my forces shoot you dead? HA!"

"So why am I here? So you can laugh in the face of your destroyer or just to get it off by acting almighty?"

"You see? That's why you humans will not win this war. You're filled with hope and pride, and mock your superiors, but you can't face the facts: you _will _be destroyed."

"Yeah? Over my dead body!"

"That can be arranged." Two Elites came up behind me with plasma daggers. I crouched and somersaulted under one, grabbing the weapon and stabbing the other in the throat. The one I took the dagger from tripped and fell on the floor. I held the blade at his neck.

"I can do that to two Elites who stand almost two feet more than me, and you're saying I can't win? We'll see once I get outta' here."

"Yes. But can you face _this_ opponent?" I turned and saw a large, hairy, gorilla looking creature. He yanked the dagger out of my hands and grabbed me, throwing me into the wall that was 5 feet away.

"OOF!" I groaned as I slid to the ground.

"Get him back to his cell. I have what I need."

Okay so now he knows the Brutes are a big problem for humans so he'll probably start sending more into the field. I've only seen a few on rare occasions but now if he figures we're weak against them, considering he used me as fresh practice, the Elites just may not be the big bad boys anymore. The Brute threw me back into my cell, and Dare began to wake up as he left.

"Whe-where am I?" She asked.

"You my friend are on board a Covenant cruiser, orbiting Reach."

"Damn, that's right… We'll have to figure a way out of here."

"Already workin' on it. If I can get a hard object past that shield and hit the controld panel, I can deactivate the lock, and we can get out of here. We'll find the armory, get our comms back, signal a rescue team, and they'll distract them while we make our way to some type of transport."

"Good plan. Except one flaw."

"What's that?"

"They'll probably have encrypted channels so we can't send a signal. But we may be able to jack a phantom though."

"Possibly."

"Now we just need to find something hard." An Elite came up with two treys of some sort of goop, and deactivated the shield to put it inside. It had two spoons, and a plasma knife to cut whatever meat was on the side. "What's this meat stuff?"

"As I recall, his name was Pvt. Mickey Anderson." I clenched my stomach. The Elite left and I grabbed the two odd looking spoons, and brushed up against the right wall so I could aim at the control panel. I tossed the spoon fast so the shield wouldn't wither away all of the metal, but I missed. I threw the second one, and it just knicked the button, but it deactivated the shield. I grabbed the knife and peered into the hall. The guard had his back turned to us and was going the other direction. But we'd have to sneak past him to get to the hanger, or possibly kill him. I ducked behind a hallway with Dare and waited for him to make his pass. He saw that the shield was down and went to signal help, but I threw the knife and it struck him in the forehead. He toppled over, and I moved to his body and retrieved my knife. The hall I stood in had a door at the end with strange lettering above it. We had to find the armory first so I guess we'd start there. I moved to the door and it opened, revealing Covenant lockers filled with weapons. A locker at the end held weapons taken from the prisoners. A few assault rifles, a rocket launcher, shotgun, my M7S and M6S and a suppressed MA5C with a red dot scope. I added the rifle, M6S and M7S to my arsenal, Dare took the rocket and shotgun.

"Let's see if we can get a tune outta' this trombone." Dare said grinning. I put on my armor, as did Dare, and we exited the room and into the main hallway. We were running down the hall when I heard a woman in the cell next to us.

"Please, help!" She yelled. I grabbed Dare.

"What do we do?" I asked.

"We can't bring her, she'll slow us down." I looked at her and knelt down in front of the shield.

"Listen I'm really sorry about this, but we can't bring you with us. But we'll send in a rescue team. I promise."

"You're leaving me to die? How could you, you monster, you freak! You're a Marine! You're supposed to help us! You can't look me in the eye and tell me you'll send others!" I took off my helmet and looked at her sternly. She looked shocked.

"There _will _be others. I promise. Now please, just stay here for the time be-"

"Devin?" She said. "Devin Belote?" I raised my brow. "You… you don't remember me?" I looked at her closely. My eyes widened.

"LINDA!"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Extraction

"I can't believe it's you!" I said wanting to grab her but the shield stopped me from doing so.

"What are you doing here?" She replied.

"Covenant ambush set me on this god forsaken ship, but I managed to find a way out." I pointed at Dare. "This is Veronica, but we call her Dare. She found us on Reach and got us back to safety. I'm just returning the favor."

"Listen, Linda. I'm sorry but we can't bring you with us. We need to slip out unnoticed and well…. We can't afford to drag you around. I'm sorry." Dare said.

"Yeah, we may not be able to bring you with us but we sure as Hell can come back, and I'll have half the damn Marines behind me. We're getting' you outta here, do you understand?" I said. She nodded. "But for now, stay safe. I'll be back within an hour." We started off down the hall and towards the elevator. I pressed the switch and the door opened, the elevator raising up so we could step on. I activated the switch and we sped down the shaft for a few seconds before the platform stopped. "There's probably gonna be a LOT of Covenant in the hanger. Just shoot and scoot your way to a Phantom, and we'll-"An alarm suddenly blared and I heard Truths voice over a megaphone, but I couldn't understand his language. Though he probably figured out that we escaped. The doors opened, and a firing squad of Elites stood. I raised my SMG and fired away, Dare grasping the rocket launcher and blasting a rocket. The group dodged and the rocket spiraled off and hit a Phantoms engines, causing a chain reaction and making it burst into flames, and blow into pieces. I ran towards one of the many other Phantoms while gunning down an Elite, Dare followed close behind ditching her rocket launcher as she fired the last one into a group of Grunts, blood spraying all over the floor and limbs flying into various directions. "Dare! Up the gravlift, I'll hold 'em off!" She ran under the Phantom and stood where a gravitational lift would pull her up and inside the ship. Once inside she signaled me.

"Okay, systems read green across the board! C'mon, get on!" I turned and ran at the lift but suddenly a Brute roared from just behind me. I turned and he raised a spiker, and he laughed as I just stood in fear. I went to raise my SMG but he fired a round and it penetrated my chest, inches from my heart.

"AHHH!" I yelled in pain as another round struck my knee, causing me to drop. Another needle pierced my shoulder, and I fell back. I pulled up my pistol and fired the clip into his head, the last two shots entered his eye after I dropped his shields. I slowly started to crawl towards the gravlift, and it hoisted me up inside. The hatch closed, and Dare started to fly out of the hanger. I watched her set it on auto pilot and we headed to Reach's surface.

"Whoo! Made it! Haha!" Dare exclaimed. "Ugh, nice shootin' Devin." I didn't reply, but I started wheezing instead, and coughing up blood. "Devin?" She turned and saw me. "Oh my god!" She ran over and knelt next to me. "Can you speak?"

"G-get-"

"Get? Get what?"

"Get these fuckin things outta me!"

"Okay, on three." She grasped the spike in my shoulder first. "One…Two…three!" She yanked it out and I hollered in pain.

"GODDA- uuuuuurrrrrrrrgggggghhhhh!" She grasped the one in my leg next.

"One…Two…Three!" She yanked that one out and instead of screaming I punched the hull of the ship, denting it in about an inch. She looked at me.

"Well? What about the other one?"

"It's too close to your heart, I don't want to have it slip… we'll get you to the medic back on Reach but for now all I can to is remove those two…"

"There's a canister of bio-foam in my backpack along with some bandeges and peroxide." I leaned forward and she unstrapped my pack, and opened the compartment, taking out a bio-foam canister and the peroxide. She poured the liquid into the two wounds and I bit my BDU collar really hard. Next she took a rag and pushed inside the wounds, cleaning out the blood, then put the bandeges on. I lied back, panting heavily. "Call , tell him your flyin' the skies in enemy transport and to signal the triple A turrets to hold fire… If I die before I get to that medic then I'll see you in Hell…" I shut my eyes, and slipped from consciousness.

"Sgt.? Sgt, are you okay?" I heard a female voice echo. I opened my eyes and saw a blonde haired nurse standing above me, shining a light in my eyes. I knocked it away and sat up, groaning.

"I just got shot me three spikes and nearly died, how the Hell do _you _think I feel?"

"I'm sorry, I just-"She frowned. "The doctor will be in in a minute." She stepped out. A few seconds later, a medic came inside the room and placed an x-ray up, showing the spike in my chest, and how close it was to my heart.

"The spike actually sliced a small wound in your heart causing internal bleeding. It formed a clot, that's why you passed out, but we were be able to clear it up, and we had to stich your heart to stop the bleeding. You'll be estimated to be out of action for two days. Until then I'm ordering you to bed rest." The doctor told me.

"No, doc, I can't. I need to get back aboard that cruiser as fast as possible!" I replied.

"Looking to go back to the same place that you almost lost your life? That's pretty bold, Devin." He shook his head. I stood up, painfully, and hid my yelp.

"See? I'm fine." He tapped one of the wounds, and I half screamed, half cried.

"I don't think so. You'll stay here until further notice."

"Doc, you have to let me on that ship! What would you do if you were wounded but your wife was aboard that ship?" He was silent a moment.

"I'll put in the paper work to return you to active duty." He sounded uncertain.

"I'll be fine." I headed out to the lobby where a Marine had my equipment stored in a temporary locker. I slipped into my gear and grabbed my and MA5C assault rifle. No need for stealth. I'm taking every one of those bastards out. I headed to the barracks where Erdem and Nick were. "Guys, gear up, we're headin' back to the Covenant ship to free some prisoners." Nick held his stomach."What's wrong with you?"

"He took a spike to the gut, but he'll pull through." Erdem replied.

"You still up for the mission, Erdem?" He grabbed his rifle.

"You know it!" We butted heads together, then headed to the airfield where two Pelicans with H.E.V. drop pods on the back awaited us, along with fourteen Marines. They'd drop with us.

"Okay, men. This should be quick and clean, and I expect every one of you Marines back here alive." I eyed O'Brien and Donny in the group. "You know what to do. Get in there and kill em' all!"

"Oorah!" They shouted. The pod doors opened up, and we all stepped inside, the door closing in front of our faces. I felt the Pelican lift into the air, and head up into the vacuum of space. Here I come, Linda.

"Yapyap"

"Anything to report?" I heard the Sanghili commander say as he entered the bridge.

"Two human transports at the bow. They're launching pods above the southern halls! They're infiltrating the ship!"

"Not for long. Marty'us." He looked at the Sanghili in the corner, my good friend who we knew as "Tech." "Take a squad and suppress the human invasion! Do NOT let them take this ship!"

"Yes, shipmaster." Tech said as he looked at me. "Yapyap, you're with me." He handed me a fuel rod cannon, which when fired, exploded on the next target it hit, and burst radiation into the area. But it didn't affect us because of our armor. I followed Tech into the hallway and down the elevator to the southern halls. The hull shook as the humans pods crashed into ship, and a hole started getting cut under where the pods had landed. Parts of the ceiling would fall down, and several humans landed inside, firing their rifles at us. I ducked into one of the halls to the left and sat, shaking. Tech placed his hand on my shoulder, and nodded. He then drew his sword and rushed after one of the humans in green, the lesser of their soldiers. He stabbed him in the throat and hoisted him up, then tossed him into a group of others.

"Fall back!" One of the humans, one who wore unique black armor, yelled, and they retreated behind some blast doors. The other in black yanked off the security panel and ripped out the wires, sealing the doors and locking them.

"Get these doors open NOW!" Tech yelled at a group of Jackals. Tech and I ran down the west hall and around to the north where an elevator awaited, which would take us to the prison area. They'd probably head there first to gain advantage of numbers, but we'd make sure they didn't get the opportunity.

"Tech"

I walked down the hallway with Yapyap at my side, eyeing the prisoners, explosions beyond the blast doors at the far end of the hall. One of the female prisoners spoke up.

"Hey, what's goin' on out there?" She asked.

"Keep your mouth shut, scum!" I said and growled at her. My comm. Beeped suddenly.

"Marty'us, have you taken care of the humans?" The Prophet of Truth said.

"Not yet, sir. But we're working on it."

"Something's come up. There is a single female prisoner in the block you are currently in. bring her to me." I turned and looked at the female, deactivating the energy shield and grabbing her by her neck, dragging her towards the council chambers. Just as I went to close the doors to get on the elevator, the humans burst through the door. One of the men in black, who I'd recognized from Reach, started running at me.

"LINDA!" He yelled. She must have been some importance to him, so I drew my sword and held it at her throat. He stopped dead and watched as I pressed the button to bring me to the council chambers above. His visor turned off, revealing his face, his teeth bared. He raised his pistol and aimed for my head and fired a round off, but my shields just blocked it. I noticed Yapyap hiding behind a corner, and I nodded to him, but the human hadn't noticed. The elevator rose into the shaft, and I carried the female into the council chambers. Truth and the others floated in their chairs, and greeted me.

"You wanted this prisoner?" I asked.

"Yes. Good work, Marty'us." Truth replied.

"You needed something, sir?" The female spoke. I looked at Truth, confused.

"'Sir'?"

"Ah, yes about that. When we captured her, she apparently worked for the humans ONI division. This was a well made prize, and we could use it to our advantage. She, by her own free will" He said with empathies on the 'by her own free will.' "Joined our side. We've been waiting for an opportunity to have her do her service to us, and with the humans looking to rescue a few prisoners, why not throw her into the batch? She could gather information for us on the humans and we just may win this war."

"Then why keep her in a cell, high prophet?"

"So that the others wouldn't know of this plan and cause a commotion. If anyone that knew were captured, they could talk. We wouldn't want that."

"I see…"

"Now then, make sure the humans make it out with her, but no one else. Do you understand? Now, send her back down the lift, and you head to the southern elevator so that there's no suspicion."

"Yes, Prophet." I handed Linda a plasma pistol. "Make It look as though you escaped."

"I understand. And Truth, one more thing… one of the humans…. He's my husband… what do I-"

"You work for us now and by working for us you've sworn an oath: Kill. All. Humans."

"I understand."

"Devin"

"LINDA!" I yelled as I ran towards the Elite. He drew up his energy sword and held it at her throat though, and I stopped, turning off my visor, and gritting my teeth at him. I raised my pistol and fired a shot, but it was useless. It just pinged off his shields. He went up to the council chambers with Linda, leaving us in the middle of a non-alien hallway. "Bravo team, start deactivating the cells and give your sidearms to the prisoners. We'll get them to the hanger bay and signal Foehammer for an extraction. Get to it! Alpha and I will take up defensive position in the north and east hallways." I took up to the east hall with four Marines with me, and Erdem took four more to the north. The remaining, well now 5 Marines started deactivating cells and handing over their sidearm's to the once MIA troopers. There were four prisoners, and they all stood ready to go. "Okay, let's move ou-" The elevator that led to the council chambers suddenly activated, signaling that somebody was coming down. We all knelt down and raised our rifles, aiming at the doors. They opened up, and Linda came out, holding a plasma pistol. "Hold fire!" I ran over. "Linda! How did you-"

"I took a plasma pistol from the Elite and charged it up, taking down his shields. While he was stunned I ran for the elevator.


	6. Chapter 5 pt 2

Chapter 5, part 2: Anomoly

"Well c'mon, let's get outta' here!" I yelled as we ran down the hall. "I want two sqauds left and two right! We'll head straight down the middle. You meet any resistance, contact us and we'll move in from behind to assist! Move out!" A handful of Marines ran left, and a handful right, while Erdem, Linda, and myself ran through the middle door, and a large halway lay ahead, and the good thing, it was full of Grunts. No Elites or Brutes... seems to easy..." Erdem, keep an eye out for traps." I whispered. He nodded. "Go!" We rushed forward, firing our SMGs, Linda staying behind me. I came close up with a Grunt and grabbed his oxygen mask and ripped it off, leaving him suffocating, while I roundhouse kicked another one in the chest, knocking him over. A charged plasma shot soard past my face, hitting the wall. I turned to the final Grunt, who looked at me scarred.

"PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!" He yelled.

"You speak my language? Good, you'll understand me when I start yelling swear words into your face for shooting at me!" I got in his face. "You my friend, are STUPID! Do you have ANY IDEA WHO YOU'RE SHOOTING AT!"

"Please don't kill me!"

"Oh, I'm not gonna. You can run, and run, and run. Until you're tired, and any of the other squads find you, and gun you down, and make you just another casuallty for your 'gods'. What's your name?"

"y-Yapyap...!"

"Well, Yapyap. You have three seconds to start running, before I change my mind!" He started to run down the hall, dropping his pistol.

"You enjoyed that, didn't you?" Erdem asked.

"Maybe...Gotta' motivate them."

"Motivate them? For what?"

"Dieing." I grinned at Erdem. We continued down the hallway until we reached an elevator. I activated my comm. "All squads, this is Devin. Report?"

"Sir, this is Alpha one, heavy resistance at the north west hallway. We lost two guys and need support!" The squad leader replied.

"Alpha two is under heavy fire, and it's down to the four of us! We could use a hand!" The second squads leader replied.

"Damnit..." I whispered under my breath. "Alpha one, how long can you hold off for?"

"Ten minutes at most, but we can't risk losing anymore guys!"

"Erdem, go grab Alpha two. They need your support, but I can't bring Linda there. Too risky. I'll head to Alpha one, and it'll be safer with more Marines. And those prisoners need to see at least one more hint of daylight before getting sent back into Hell."

"You got it." Erdem replied. Me and Linda ran back the way we came, and went through the door on our right, which would head to the squad at the north west. We made a U turn around and saw the Marines behind the walls or fallen containers, and I counted now four dead, two wounded. Linda ran behind the wall, and I moved to the Sergeant, the one behind the container.

"What's the situation?" I asked.

"We're almost outta ammo, and Sam's got a shot to the shoulder. Bio foam didn't help and it looks like it's starting to get infected." He put his assualt rifle over the cover and blind fired, gunning down an Elite. I stood up and fired aa burst into a grunt holding a plasma grenade, and it dropped, blowing up his buddies. A few Grunts and two Elites remained.

"You take your men and head back that way, hang left and wait at the elvator. Erdem's gathering the remains of Alpha two and we're gonna regroup there." I placed my hand on his shoulder. "And be careful. My men only die when I tell them too!"

He grinned at me.

"Sir, yes sir!" He and the others started running away from the fight, and I chucked a frag grenade over, blowing up two of the three Elites, and peppered the rest of the grunts with my assualt rifle. I ran at the last Elite and hit him with the side of the rifle, then smashed his face with the butt. He fell down, grabbing his bleeding nose. I stuck the assualt rifle to his chest and unloaded half the clip. I turned to Linda.

"Go to the elevator. The Marines will keep you safe. I'll help Erdem with the other squad. Okay?" She looked at me and nodded. "Good." We started back towards the levator to the hanger, and Linda ran inside the door where the others were. I kept going and ran over to the second squad. Erdem looked over at me.

"Welcome to the party!" He said firing his rifle.

"Hell, I wouldn't miss killing a few Covies for all the money in the world!" I fired at the rather large group of Elites, maybe twelve of them, and twenty Grunts. ""If things start getting hot, you and the others pull back!" I called over to the Sergeant.

"Okay!" He replied in a shakey voice. Suddenly, two plasma grenades landed at my feet. My eyes widened.

"GET DOWN!"

Linda

Soon, I'd be off the ship and would be able to continue my mission. The Marines around me looked scarred. They should be. We'd crush them in a matter of days. We were constructing a new weapon to test on them, but I needed to gather information of their bases and how many forces they had. A little reconiscence never hurt anybody. One of the Marines started whisper to his friend and kept looking at me.

"Yes?" I asked.

"We came all the way for you? We risked our lives for you?"

"No." Said another Marine. "We came for all the prisoners, not just her!"

"Still, there's so very few of us." A prisoner said. "If I were one of the guys coming up here, I'd just leave us. No point risking that many lives for like, five of us!"

"Why don't you ask Devin?" The alpha two leader said sarcastically.

"How bout you shut your goddamn mouth!" The prisoner got mad.

"We came here to save your sorry ass. I don't wanna have to shoot you, do I?" He drew his pistol. The prisner gulpped.

"Okay, shut up!" Yelled Alpha two's leader. "They're gonna be back any minute now, so just get ready." The dorr opened, and Devin, Erdem, and two Marines came in.

"That's it?" Said Alpha one's leader.

"'Fraid so." Devin replied. "C'mon. Let's get to the hanger. They're hot on our trail and we need to move, quick." We all huddled into the elevator and Devin activated the switch, and we soared into the shaft. After a couple minutes, the doors opened, and the Marines ran out firing, creating a defensive parimeter. Devin, Erdem, and I ran to cover, while the Marines continued firing at the Grunts and Elites. Devin activated a beacon, and spoke into his comm.

"Foehammer, this is Alpha three. We're ready for evac, but be preped to come in hot. I'm thinkin' these guys could get a taste of the Havok missles, don't you?" I heard a faint reply from his radio, and Devin grinned. "Alright, see you then." He turned to the Marines, who took cover. "Three minutes!"

"Roger that! Enough time to kill a few bastards while we're at it!" A Marine shouted. Devin stood up and sprayed bullets all over the hanger bay, taking down three Grunts and got a headshot on a Brute. The firefight continued for a while, until a Marine shouted, "There she is!" A Pelican flew into the hanger, and all the Elites and Grunts focused fire on it. The Pelican had two missles on the side, and fired one into a group of at least thirty. They blew apart into pieces, and I kind of felt angry. The others tried to retreat to the elevator on the other side of the hanger, but Foehammer blew the rest of them up. I frowned, while everyone, including Devin, cheered.

"Let's get the Hell outta here!" Devin said. We all boarded the Pelican, and the back end closed up, and we exited the hnager, heading towards the planet. "Hell yeah!" Devin took off his helmet and layed his head back, then truned to me, putting his arm around me. "Too easy, huh?" I faked a smile at him, and he grinned. "We're heading down to Reach and I'll have commander Mat decide what he's gonna do about a safe haven for you."

"No, I'll be fine at the base." I replied, but he looked at me confused."I can't leave, we have so much catching up to do"

"We can reconnect after the war, Linda."

"Well... what if you don't make it?"

"Don't think like that." He sighed. "You'll stay at the base for a few days until we can find you a safe haven, okay?" I nodded. "Now c'mon, we'll head back and get some rest, then we'll sort everything out, okay?"

"Okay." I smiled at him, then layed back. Soon this war would be over. Soon.

"What happened? I mean after... Harvest?" Devin asked me once we were back at the base.

"Things uhh... got crazy." I proceeded to tell him how I came to become under Covenant "capture."

Harvest

"Honey where the FUCK do you think you're going?" I asked Devin as he held his pistol and started towards the door.

"Saving the world I hope!" He ran outside. Quickly, I grabbed Ross and stood in the hallway watching as people screamed and ran around. I headed down the hallway of the apartments and looked out the windown to see a large ship above Harvest. I gasped, and went to head back inside, when I bumped into Janice, our neighbor.

"Linda! What's going on?" She asked me.

"I don't know! Devin's outside trying to help the others." An alarm sounded outside. "They're probably calling the Army. We can only hope."

"Come on! You and Ross will be safe. Follow me." She led us out the back way and onto Jeffesrson Street, where her car was parked.

"What about Devin?"

"I'll call him once we get where we're going to."

"No, he's coming with us!" I stepped out of the car and placed Ross in the seat. "Take Ross and get him to safety, then I'll call you and let you know if we're safe, then you pick us up, okay?"

"Okay, Linda."

"Now hurry!" She sped away with Ross while I headed back to get Devin. Suddenly, the ship lowered a weapon, and it looked as though it was charging up. It blasted the apartment and blew it to pieces. "DEVIN!" I screamed, and ran towards the complex. Suddenly, a smaller ship flew overhead of me, and a hole on the bottom dropped... beings with four split lips and swords and some sort of guns. One of them grabbed me and put cufflinks around me.

"Get this prisoner to the ship, now! Truth will be happy once he gets his hands on these new test subjects." One of them said.

"Let go of me you bastard!" I tried to punch him but it was no good. He threw me to the ground and I started floating into the air, up into the transport. There were even more aliens inside, and one of them opened a door towards the back, where at least 15 other people were being held. He threw me in with the rest, and slammed the door shut.

"That's about it. They took me on their ship, did experiments and whatnot... they took one of my kidneys and wound up smashing it because they couldn't figure out what it did, but other than that, I'm fine. Shooken up, but fine."

"Still, they're gonna pay. I'll kill every single one of them. Once this war is over I'm going to personally spit on every corpse of those goddamn Covies." Devin said, sighing. "Listen, get some rest. Me and my squad are heading out on a supply run to bring some food to outpost seven. They're running out of rations and they need us as an escort. Also, I want you to check in with the doctor tomorrow and see a psychological professional. I need you ship-shape because the C.O. won't trust you unless you undergo pricedures."

"I understand." I said. Great. If this guy got me to crack, it'd be all over... He placed his hand on my shoulder, smiled, and kissed me.

"It's good to have you back." He walked off, leaving me standing, deep in thought.

Devin

"Okay, nice run people! Good job! Outpost seven has been supplied and they are go for the next couple of months." I said into my comm to Lt. Bedford, who was waiting inside the briefing room.

"Excelent job, Devin. Out." He replied. I stood outside for few minutes talking with Erdem.

"Jennifer McHansen, or Megan Lauren?" Erdem asked. I peered at him.

"Good question... well, Jennifer wouldn't even bother to call you the next day so..." I chuckled. "Jennifer." We highfived eachother and laughed, when suddenly a Marine ran over, sounding shakey.

"Sir, you guys'd better see this!" He led us to the briefing room where there stood a very angry looking Lt. Bedford.

"Devin, could you explain this to me?" He said bitterly.

"Sir?" I replied confused. He activated the hologram in the center, and it showed Marines from Outpost seven moving the supplies we just brought in.

"Get those containers to warehouse B and lock em' up. This should save us for the next-" A beam from a Beam rifle pierced his head, and the Marine who was recording this from his helmet cam turned to see a Jackal in the trees. He raised his rifle and fired at him, and managed to take him out. A medic ran over to the body of the man named Wilson. Someone in the background shouted: "SERAPHS!" Two large ships, that looked like flying tear drops, flew overhead and dropped plasma bombs into the barracks, blowing it to pieces. The Marine, still recording, turned to see the anti-aircraft guns starts fireing, but were then blew apart by one of the alien crafts. The gates were also blown away and hundreds of Covenant troops piled inside, fireing their weapons and taking the others by surprise. The Marine ran behind a wall and took off his helmet, showing his face.

"We need backup, over! This is Outpost seven, please someone respond to this!" He pressed a switch on the side which sent the message. "Send- AHHH!" An Elite stabbed him through the face with a plasma dagger. The soldier wasn't even 18 by the looks of it. The Elite eyes the helmet, then roared, smashing it under his foot. The transmission ended, and Linda came in behind me.

"What's going on?" She asked. I punched the table.

"Damnit!" I hissed. "Outpost seven... how did they-"

"I don't know, Sergeant, but you're damn sure gonna find out. Take your squad and search the reamins of Outpost seven and see what you can find. There may be a leak, or the bastards got lucky, either way, they're gonna pay. Move out." Bedford said. I nodded, and put on my helmet, and grabbed my assualt rifle.

"This is Alpha one, we're at Outpost seven. You read me command?" I said into my comm.

"Roger that, Alpha. What's the status?" Bedford replied. I stepped out of the Warthog with Erdem and Nick, who now had been put back on active duty. I eyed the destroyed structure and frowned.

"It's been better, that's for sure."

"Roger. Call in once you're finished. Out." We stacked up at the gate and I scanned the inside of the courtyard. Two Jackals, and one Elite. Not much of a guard force. I signaled Erdem to move into the northwest tower on my go, and he nodded. One the guards had their backs turned, Erdem hightailed it to the stairs immediatally inside and set up his supressed sniper inside the structure. He gave me the thumbs up. Nick snuck up behind the Elite, who was checking out some dead bodies, I took up behind the first Grunt who was about to take a nap, and Erdem targeted the second, whowas just standing there. None saw us behind them. I gave the signal, and at the same time, we killed them. Erdem shot the Grunt, Nick snapped the Elites neck, and I shot the other Grunt in the back with my supressed M6S. I reactivated my comm.

"Erdem, stay inside that tower but lay low. If any reinforcements come through, signal us, and we'll hit em' from all angles, over?"

"Roger." Erdem replied. I opened the main doors and slowly walked down the + shapped hallway. I heard a noise from the right hall, and I paused and listened.

"No. Please don't kill me! I have a family!" I heard some shifting inside a pack, and I'm guessing he pulled out a picture.

"Good. Even more humans to kill!" A Brute replied, and I heard the cock of his spiker.

"No! Please don't, I beg you!" The Marine started crying. I nodded at Nick and we rushed around the corner and unloaded our rifles into the Brute and the two Grunts that guarded him. The Brute fell fireing he Spiker, and the Grunts tried to run but didn't get far. I walked over to the Marine, grabbed his arm, and lifted him up. "Th-Thank you!" He started crying again.

"Pull it together! What's the situation?"

"They overran us. Most of us are dead but they took about 20 prisoners inside the mess hall. My friend, Marcus, is one of them. Please, you have to get them out!"

"In due time. Can you walk?"

"Yeah. They only beat me a little but I can still fight." I handed him the Spiker from the ground.

"Then you can help us. Your friend is in Hell right now, we're gonna walk him out. Nick, let's go." We continued down the hallway and scanned the rooms, finding corpses and... half eaten flesh. The Brutes are ruthless. I saw the double doors to the mess hall and slightly opened the door to peek inside. About 30 troops, most of them Grunts, two Brute minors, and... "Shit." I sighed. "Chieftain... plus 29 other troops... I'm thinkin' explosives but we can't risk the hostages... I eyed a room to the left marked "Power room" and showed a picture of a lightening bolt. I opened the door where there was a power box, and deactivated every single one of the switches. The lights went out, and I heard startled gasps inside the mess hall. "Trooper, you stay out here. Nick, switch to night vision." I pressed a button and the halls became green as the nightvision mode kicked on. I opened the doors and we moved inside, the Brutes snifing, catching our scent, but they couldn't see us. Nick went to one corner of the room and I went to the other, creating a crossfire. I spoke silently into the comm. "Hit the Grunts methan tanks unless they're near the prisoners." I raised my hand, signaling hold. Once the Grunts were far away enough from the prisoners in the middle of the room, I waved my hand, and we sprayed bullets into the Grunts, their methan tanks causing small explosions as the bullets hit them. They blew off some limbs, and killed one of the Brute minors. Nick gunned down the other, and we circled in arouns the Chieftain, who was _pissed._ He growled at me as I tried to get behind him. "Light him up." We emptied our clips into him, and even after he was dead we kept shooting him. "Nick, go reactivate the power." He nodded and left me standing there, the prisoners looking at my sillhouette. "Let there be light." I said, and the lights came back on, and the Marines sat there, eyeing me. "Good evening, remnaints of Outpost seven. I am Sergeant Devin T. Belote and I am here to rescue you. We will get you out of here via Pelican, and some of you can get the chance to go home with a shiney medal. If you can walk, put your boots on the line, and grab a weapon. There's plenty for the taking, so get to it." The Marines wriggled out of the bondages, and grabbed scattered weapons from dead humans or Covenant. We stood in the main hallway, and I spoke up for them to hear. "Is that all that there was here at Outpost seven?"

"Yeah, that's about it." A Marine said.

"Good. Let's head out and I'll signal the Evac." We walked outside into the courtyard, and I once again activated my comm. "Foehammer, this is Alpha one, we need two Pelicans here, A.S.A.P., we got a crew of twenty. Over?"

"Roger, Alpha. We're five by five! Out." She replied.

"Nick, you wait here with Erdem and the others. I'll go back inside and see if the Covenant have any data logs and see if I can find out what happened here." I headed back inside the base and searched a few of the larger rooms, where there were Covenant computers set up. I went through the data files, and I noticed it had a translation button, so the other Covenant races could understand when they were reading. The Grunts spoke common English, so I changed the setting to Unggoy. It read: "High Prophet of Truth, this is Za'ne. Agent X was right, Outpost seven was taken by complete surprise. We've taken some prisoners to be brought back and disected. Agent X told me she needs more time. She thought Outpost seven would have been a big discovery, but we still have no information on the Humans main base. She told me she's not in said base, but more as an outpost about 20 miles away. We'll hold off our attack there until Agent X is ready to leave. For now we will hold here, sir."

I clenched my fist. A leak? We have a leak! Great, Bedford's gonna _love _this.

"Sir, please, I can explain!" I said as I followed Lt. Bedford down the hallway to the command center. He picked up the phone which was connected to the speakers throughtout the base.

"I want all female personel in the barracks five minutes ago!" He said and I heard his voice echo into the speakers outside. He then hung it up and turned to me. "You're the one that's going to interrogate them. Now move it." He brushed past me, and I headed the opposite direction to the barracks, where all the female soldiers were lined up. I turned and saw Nick in the corner, arms folded, and watching.

"Nck, get back in line!" I joked, and the others laughed. Just trying to lighten the mood. "Ahhh I'm just kidding. But, to the point." I changed to a serious tone. "One of you girls is a traitor." Some looked at me confused. "While investigating Outpost seven there were files saying, 'Agent X needs more time, she, hence, _she _needs more time in locating the Humans main base. She told me she's not in said base, but more as an Outpost about 20 miles away. Now, we're the only ones within that range. The others hit around the 30 mark, so that means one of you gals is the mole. I signaled the Marine standing guard, and he shut and locked the main doors to the barracks. "You'll all be locked here until you fess up and commit to your crime. You cost alot of great lives, and you will be punished. We will all sit here, and believe me it could take days. I'm willing to wait that long if I have to."

1 hour later

"Okay people how long do we have to wait?" I said. They'd been standing at attention for and hour already. I was starting to have doubts if any of them were actually the traitor. If not them, then who though? All of these Marines were green as freshly cut grass, they would have cracked after the first ten minutes. "Have nay of you seen comabt yet?"

"Sir, no sir!" They all answered at the same time.

"Then none of you have had contact with the Covenant, correct?"

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Then you couldn't have been captured, correct?"

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Then none of you could be the traitors unless you found a way to contact the Covenant. Who among you works the radios or signals? Step forward." Three women stepped forward. "Everyone else, you are excused. They turned,and exited the barracks, no questions asked. I stood infront of the first radio operator. "What's your excuse? Where were you around 0600?"

"Sir, in the mess with Sergeant Hopkins, sir?" She replied.

"And why were you with Sergeant Hopkins?" She started to blush.

"He was being a gentleman...sir."

"I will talk to Sergeant Hopkins later. Dismissed." I turned to Erdem and whispered. "Make sure she doesn't leave the perimeter." He nodded and exited. I went to the second woman. "You?"

"Doing P.T. with Pvt. Anderson, sir." She turned and looked at the guard by the door.

"Sir, that is correct, sir. Cpl. Smith had us do some exercises, sir." Anderson said.

"You two are dismissed." They exited the barracks. I walked over to the last woman. "Well? Where were you?"

"Sir..I-... In the comm room...s-sir..." She said.

"And why were you in the comm room?"

"It's not what you think! I detected an anomoly and tried to check it out, the system went haywire and my computer shut down. All I got was 'Outpost seven, suplies, and 30 miles away, the rest was scrambled and encoded. I couldn;t find anything else... I'm sorry sir."

"Is there any proof in what you say?"

"Sir, yes sir. I recorded it and it's on the hard drive. I'll show you." She led us to the comms room and activated her terminal, then opening a file marked "anomoly." It was disorented, but I made out a female voice speaking a mix of English and Covenant.

"What the Hell?" I peered at the Pvt. as she sat there looking at me. "That's impossible. Nobody on base here knows how to speak Covenant basic. So how sent that signal?"

"Maybe the Marines aren't the ones responsible, sir." The woman said.

"Then... who is?"


	7. Chapter 6

to the very few people who read this, Nick Pender will now be known as Jason Rivers. I'm adding a different Nick because I don't want 2 Nicks in the story, so I'll kill off Jason then add in Nick... lol

Chapter 6: Traitor in the Midst

Linda Belote, 0349

"So you still don't have the location of their main base yet?" Truth said into the comm syste.

"Not yet but I think I can suck it out of Devin." I replied.

"Just be careful. Don't make it seem to appereant that you absolutely need the location."

"Gotcha. Out." I shut down the small holo device and slipped it in my pocket, then headed inside the barracks, where I saw Devin, taking his shirt off and placing it inside his footlocker. He put his pistol inside after, and then turned and faced me, frowning.

"Linda, we may have to get you out of the outpost. There's a traitor inside and I don't want you in the danger zone." He said to me, grabbing my shoulders. Now was my chance.

"I may have to move? Where will I go?"

"I...can't exactly give you the location... some of the others think that you may be the traitor, and we have to take caution."

"So you can't trust me?" I pouted. I whispered in his ear, "Do _you _think I'd ever do that? I was taken prisoner. They tortured me, so why would I work for them?"

"I...you're right." He looked into my eyes. "Not a word to the others, okay? We're deciding to take you to our main base, a fortress under safe guard by top ranking Marines. You'll be safe there. Triple A guns around the perimiter, Mk,7 shield generator, you name it, we got it there. Covenant won't be able to break through the defenses unless they had some super-weapon capable of destroying the most powerful shiled generator ever built. It's about 50 miles do east of here. We'll probably bring you there tomorrow night." He smiled at me. and I returned by planting a kiss on him.

"Thank you." I said, then he nodded me off, and laid down in his bunk. Inside my mind, I cheered. I barely had to beg, he just gave it out to me. I exited the barracks and stood outside, the air blowing in my face. I would have to enjoy the freshness of the planet while I could, because soon there wouldn't even be a semll, or a sound, or a sight.

Just glass.

Devin Belote, 1956 hours

"I wanna know who this traitor is, and I wanna know now!" I said as I walked into the comms room to contact outpost five. We lost contact with them an hour ago and we were going to try again. I furiously picked up the radio and entered the frequency. "Outpost Five, pickup, do you read? This is Outpost Two, please respond. Over?" All i heard was static. "Damnit!" I chucked the radio across the room.

"Devin..." Erdem tapped me on the shoulder. "The scouts reported back...everyone's dead..." I punched the desk in anger.

"Ugh... that's it! I have had it with these Covies! How are they finding our Outposts, ones that are much too well concealed! Somebody here is giving away locations, and I wanna know now!"

"Sir, Falcon transports are prepped and ready for the escort to Birds Nest." A Marine told me. Birds Nest was the codename.

"No. We're not goin' by Falcon. Get some troop transport folowed by a few Hogs. It'll be much safer if there's any Covenant in the area." I told him.

"On it, sir!" He walked outside to prepare the vehicles.

"Okay, ERdem, Nick, Dare, get ready. We're gonna bring Linda to Birds Nest in an hour. Okay, let's move people!"

I sat in the barracks, the transports outside the main gate, and the Marines in their bunks sleeping. Erdem, Nick, and Dare were putting their gear on.

"Gimmie a few minutes, I'm gonna go take a smoke." I said grabbing a pack of cigarettes. I stepped outside and put the butt in my mouth and went to light it when I heard a voice around the corner of the mess hall. It was Linda.

"Yeah, I'll gather information on the other outposts." She said. "Yeah, the guards are dead, and the guys in the convoy didn't see. Yeah, I'll meet you at the rendevouz in 10 minutes. Yeah, Devin doesn't suspect a thing. He believed every word I said. Okay, I'm on my way." I grit my teeth. Linda was the traitor? I dropped the pack of cigarette and drew my pistol, and then began to follow her. She went around behind the convoy, and they didn't see her. She proceeded into the woods, and walked for ten minutes until we came to a large field. There, overhead, was a Phantom transport. She was about to enter in through the grav lift, when I drew the pistol up.

"Linda." I said. She jumpped, then faced me. "It was you? You of all people? How could you do this!"

"Devin, don't even try anything." She drew up an M6 magnum and took aim at my head. "The Covenant taught me that the Humas are a blight on the galaxy. They order around all that follow them, and don't give any thought about what the god's demand them. They don't care what they wish. The Covenant follow the god's will, and the god's have seen you as a non-usable waste of space. He deemed you expendable, and we're going to be the tool of the god's. We shall eliminate all humans!" She said to me.

"Don't you realize that you'll be exterminated too? You're a human! You're my wife for god's sake!"

"I'm sorry Devin. But The Prophet of Truth has shown me the light."

"Linda, listen to yourself! This isn't you! You shouldn't be with them! I'm giving you one chance, and only one, to come back with me, or I'll have to pull the trigger." I said, a tear forming in my eye.

"And I'll give you a chance to join me and the Covenant. They'll show you the way."

"I'm sorry Linda." I squeezed the trigger, I felt the ricochete, and I saw the light flash behind my closed eyelids. I then felt a sting in my chest. I just shot my own wife. Though...there was something else. Another sting. One that soared through my chest and out my back. I felt woozy, and saw blood dripping from a wound four inches from my heart. I then saw Linda standing, holding a smoking pistol, and she'd sidestepped, causing my shot to miss. I dropped the pistol, then fell to my knees. Seven more shots pierced my chest, and I fell over in pain. Upside down, I watched her enter the Phantom, and soar into the sky, leaving me, bleeding out.

She left me to die.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Location Revealed

0368 hrs, Cpl. Erdem Kilic, "Hell's Height" base on top of mountain "Anhario"

"He'll be okay, right?" I asked as I looked at Devin, lieing in the med-bay. We found him after half an hour of searching, bleeding out from a gunshot wound to the chest.

"He should be, after all the drugs we loaded him with, he won't even feel a thing when he wakes up. Also we extracted the bullet in time before it could do any serious damage to his heart. It ruptured one of his arteries but the bullet blocked it from leaking, and we got it out and sealed it before the bulet got a chance to move. If you hadn't found him and brought him here 2 minutes later we wouldn't have been able to save him." The woman standing next to me said. Her name was Sarah Mitchell. "Also, seeing as how your outpost was destroyed, you'll take orders from me now. I'll be your advisor while you're in the field."

"Damn... I can't believe the outpost's gone...Any other survivors?"

"Everyone that was there is now dead, except for you and Devin. We didn't find Dare's body, but we found Jason's. Dare is considered M.I.A."

"We'll find her..."

"In the meantime, I've prepped a new squad for you and Devin. Let's head over there now." She led me out the med-bay and to a large Hanger. Inside were Pelicans and Longswords, and at the back stood one ODST and one SPARTAN. We headed over to where they were standing, and they immediatally snapped to attention.

"Sir!" They said in unison.

"Eh don't call me sir, I work for a living." I said. They lowered their hands to an at ease position. "Okay. As you know, Devin's taking a little nap right now and won;t be joining us for a while. In the meantime we'll be doing assignments for Sarah here, and we listen to her and her only. She comes directly from ONI and is under the command of Cathrine Halsey. We do as we're told. I don't care even if you are a SPARTAN." I turned my attention to Nick. Sarah handed me a folder and I opened it. "Says here two SPARTANs, our other two squad members, are MIA. Vefa and Reha misson: Drag their asses back home no matter what. Is that clear?" They nodded. "Good. Falcon is prepped and ready for take off whenever you ladies decide when it's time to go." I grabbed my MA37 assualt rifle and headed for the Falcon and sat in the passanger seat. Ausitin sat next to me and Nick sat on the third seat across while two Marines sat at the mounted guns on the side. "We'll be escorting a Pelican for the extraction, then once we get the brothers we'll head back here for debrifeing." The Falcon started lifting into the air. "These guys have been missing ever since the bombing of the outposts in the vacinity, so they probably don;t come from Alpha site. And Covies have sure as Hell made sure we haven't been able to find them, but they finally slipped. Now, once we hit the ground I want-"

"Banshees on our six!" One of the gunners yelled as he started firing the minigun. The Falcon swerved as it dodged incoming plasma fire and I had to hold on tightly to the handle.

"Bring the sonuvabitch down before he can get a fix!" The pilot called back. The mini guns didn't let up until I could feel the heat of the explosion behind us as the enemy aircraft burst into flames.

"Think there'll be more?" I asked.

"Likely. Hopefully they didn't see Alpha site or else we're screwed!"

"Then let's just find these two and get the Hell outta here."

After what seemed like forever, the Falcon set down in the middle of the courtyard of what looked to be a small settlement.

"Okay, let's spread out and search the perimiter." I instructed as I stepped out of the craft and onto the pavement. The town was small, not to many houses around, a few tall buildings to the east. Nothing really special. We split up and covered the perimiter of the courtyard, and once it was secured I removed my helmet and sat down on a fontain ledge and opened up the foulder Sarah had given me. "Says that two civilians saw what looked to be 'Two armored giants fighting the Alines somewhere near the courtyard.' It also says they split when the 'Armored giants' tried to help them. They match the description: Black MJOLNER with standard issued body armor, ODST helmets, and EVA sholder pads, armed with MA37s and handguns."

"Sir, with all do respect, they're SPARTANs. Couldn't they have just brought themselves back to the base instead of making us risk our necks?" Austin added.

"They're part of our squad now. We don't leave anyone behind. Is that understood?"

"Yes... sir."

"Let's start searching." I put on my helemt again and looked towards the east where a large hotel stood, a hole in the mid level area. I swear I saw something moving, so I looked down the scope of my DMR. "GET DOWN!" I ran and tackled Austin just before the pink needle from the Covenant rifle could hit him. Nick immediatly raised his handgun and fired precision shots up towards where the sniper was, hitting him twice in the just and once in the head. The jackal fell 15 stories towards the concrete. He must have given away our location though, because out of nowhere, dropships started flying in, dropping off multiple Elites around the courtyard. At least 50 enemies, easy. I raised up my MA37 and gritted my teeth. "Don't let me down, guys." I went to squeeze the trigger when suddenly two rockets flew out of nowhere, striking two of the phantoms in the engines, causing them to spin out of control. They crashed into eachother, and the wreckages fell on top of most of the Covenant troops. Then sniper fire rained down on the courtyard. In all the confusioon the Covies just starting running for cover, trying not to get hit by the shots that were so powerfull it could take an Elites head of from at least 3 miles away. I decided to join in on the fun and sprayed the Grunts ahead with automatic weapons fire while Austin picked off targets with his sidearm. Nick raised his SMGs and gunned down multiple Elites. This all happened in the matter of 15 seconds. Every single one of the Covies that had been dropped off, had been dropped. No mercy from the ODSTs or the SPARTANs. I thought that all this fire had come from a large structure at least half a mile away, but it was right on top of the roof of the gas station not even a hundred feet away. I saw them, Vefa and Reha jump down from the building and start walking towards us, casually.

"You must be Vefa and Reha." Nick said.

"Sup?" Reha, the younger one, said to Nick.

"'Bout time they sent someone. I thought Sarah'd forgotten about us." Vefa added.

"I'm just here for the kills." Austin said with a grin.

"I'm sure... Sorry about the little incident back there. They've been searching for us for quite some time now..."

"No worries. Now we'd better get the Hell outta here. A banshee was flying near Alpha base and has a possible location and we need to get back and notify Sarah, have a team salvage the survalence footage."

"Damn..." Vefa said. I actived my comm.

"Foxtrot niner this is Charlie 2 actual, request Pelican for extraction. We've found 'em. Over?"

"Roger that. Foehammer's inbound for extract. Out." Colonel Jefferson said.

"Okay boys, Foehammer's comin' in. Get your things packed up and we are outta here." I headed back towards the fountain where I took my helmet off again and dipped my hands in the cool water, splasing some on my face and shaking the rest out of my hair as it hung in my face. I looked up to the sound of the Pelicans engines cooling down as it came in to land. I retrived my helmet and weapon and got inside, the others sitting down while I went into the cockpit to see the female pilot sitting there. She looked up at me.

"Let's head home, Foehammer." I said as I climbed into the co-pilots seat directly behind her. We took off from the small town and headed back towards Alpha. Mission accomplished.

So what now?

Lavinder? Is that the smell that was above me as I lay on the coshined bed inside the dark room. I felt a quick sting in my arm to which I winced in pain, not knowing the the sharp point was going to find its way into my body. I let out a sigh/groan and groggly opened my eyes to see a silouhette above me, short hair reaching down above the shoulders. A womans figure. Suddenly, I was blinded by a bright white light that kept moving back and fourth.

"His pupils aren't dilating right now but I'm sure they'll adjust within a few momments." The female said as she strutted away leaving me alone in the room again. I tried to stand but could hardly see. I navigated my way to the door and placed my hand on the handle and turned it, stepping into the hallway. My vision now returned, I lazily walked down the hallway, no one in sight yet. I saw a bin next to the door of the room I'd been in and reached inside to find black BDU's, and then reached inside the back pocket to find a wallet. I took out a dollar bill, then placed the wallet neatly back into the pocket, continuing to walk down the hallway. I stopped infront of a vending machine and inserted the dollar and entering the code for a Snickers. Nothing happened, so I just starred at it until the metal ring started to move, pushing the Snickers outward towards the edge where it's fall into the bin. But it didn;t get pushed all the way. It just sat there, dangling above where it SHOULD have fallen. I lightly hit the glass and gave a half grunt and then just rested my forehead against the cool machine. I sat like that until a Marine turnned the corner and saw me. At first he chuckled, then he pulled out his radio. I peered at him.

"Problem?" I asked the trooper.

"You need to be in bed..." He replied.

"I just wanted acandy bar, man."

"Well you can have one when the doc says you can, okay?"

"What the hell did you guys give me? I feel woozy..."

"Just some mild anestetics that'll wear off anyti-"

"AHHH!" I yelped as they wore off a little to soon and I felt a burning sensation in my chest. I clutched it with my right hand while my other punched the glass of the vending machine again.

"Yeah..." He activated his radio. "Sarah, this is Connel. He's up and the anestetics wore off. Okay. He uhh... was getting a candy bar when I found him. Well the machine failed... You're kidding, right? Ugh." He deactivated the radio and walked over to me. He lightly moved me out of his way and inserted a dollar into the machine and punched in the code for a snickers. It worked for him, of course, and he handed it to me. "I cannot believe I;m being ordered to buy you a candy bar but, here ya' go. Don;t choke on it." He walked away and I sat down, unwrapping the treat and taking a bite. I heard footsteps approaching to the left and I turned to see a female in a white labcoat walking my way, short brown hair reaching just down to her shoulders.

"Hey there." She said as she stood above me.

"Hi..." I trailed off the word and took another bite. She took a seat next to me. And here I was thinking that nobody in the UNSC was ever just casual.

"How are you feeling?"

"Okay..." I finished the treat and looked around for a waste bin. The female took i and pocketed it.

"I'll take care of it." She held out her hand and shook it. "Sarah Mitchell, pleased to meet you."

"Staff sergeant Devin T. Belote, happy to follow orders and not get dead in the process." I grinned.

"If you'll please follow me." She stood up and started walking towards alarge room at the end of the hallway guarded by two SPARTANs along with a keypad and retnal scanner.

"You guys got it locked up tight, don't ya?" She ignored me and entered a code and placed her eye to the scanner. The door, with a loud squeek, opened, and she led me inside. I admired how well placed the weapons on the racks were placed, along with the sets of armor that hung at the back right corner, one already prepped for me. The helmet was standard ODST, the right shoulder pad was a Security model which included a new knife, a 6 inch black blade that was perfectly sheathed on the front, the left shoulder was a Commando model, the chest piece was a Sapper/Assualt model with duel grenade belts. On my wrist i still had my tac-pad used to display data in the field, and on my leg was a tactical case for holding items. I gave a sharp wistle at my new outfit. "Trendy. Always wanna look devilshly handsome on the battle field."

"Well this 'Battle field' you;re going in to is no where near here. You'll be working with Noble team, a group of six SPARTANs Dr. Halsey dispatched about two days ago. You're to aid them in their mission, which is getting the A.I. construct codenamed 'Cortana' to the Pillar of Autumn, unde command of captain Keyes. I'll transfer the orders to Halsey soon. Until then you'll do some odd jobs for me, such as-" Suddenly, Erdem, A SPARTAN, and another ODST walked down the hall.

"Sarha." Erdem said. "We got a problem. We came under fire from Banshees as we exited the base, and they're front mounted cams could possibly have picked up the location of the base. I recomend we retrieve that downed Banshees device immediatly." He turned attention to me. "Good of you to jon us, Devin."

"What?" Sarah said. She covered her face and groaned. "Fine. Devin take your squad and re-capture that device before the Covenant get their hands on it."

"Right." Erdem, the SPARTAN, the ODST and myself headed out of the armory, me dressed in my brand new armor, and we exited the blast doors in the main lobby, seeing a Falcon already being prepped for take off. A Marine saw me weaponless so he tossed me an MA37 with a dot sight and supressor in it. Erdem and the other two carried suprresed weapons as well. I sat down in the seat across from Erdem, Austin, the ODST, was next to me, and the SPARTAN, Nick, sat with his legs over the side of the Falcon. We took off into the sky and began heading east, towards where the Banshees had gone down. Once we were out of sight of the base, we saw a Phantom above the smokey plains, dropping several Covenant troops down.

"We gotta stay outta sight from them." I said. Pilot, drop us down in that clearing. We'll move up and him em' from the rear."

"Roger that." The pilot responded. He lowered the craft above the grassy plains and we jumpped out, our boots touching the soft grass. The Falcon lifted off once again, heading back to Alpha base, leaving us alone in the quiet forest floor, several birds chirpping around.

"Go." I waved my arm forward, signaling a move up. We crouch-ran over into the shadey area, towards the Phantom. We heard the sound of its hover boosters above, and I preesed my fingers to where my lips would be if they weren't blocked by my helmet. I slid down behind a large log, Erdem hiding behind a tree, Austin and Nick crouching behind a rock. I peeked over and saw two Elites digging through the wreckage of the Banshees, trying to drag out the camera. It took all their effort, but they still couldn't manage to get it out. A Brute Chieftain, arms crossed, stood over where a group of Grunts were, shaking his head in disapointment. "Go for 'big boy' first, and make sure he don't touch that hammer of his." I eyed a gravity hammer sitting against a tree about 10 feet from him. We all cocked our guns back and aimmed for the Chieftains head. ""On my go. Three...Two...One!" We lit up the darked forest with our gunfire, taking the Covies by surprised. The Brutes blood sprayed all over the grass before he fell down, trying to reach his hammer. He wasn't dead yet, but he wouldn't be going anyhwere. I focused at the Elites now, emptying my entire clip into ones skull, dropping his shields first, then puncturing his skull, nearly blowing it to pieces with the amount of bullets taht left the barrel of my gun. Nick ran over and pulled out his knife, jumpping on top of him and stabbing his throat. Austin took up his duel SMGs and peppered the group of Grunts before they had a chance to react, blowing off one of their methanes tanks and blowing the gas, a large explosion taking out the rest of the Grunts. The plains now laid quiet, the Phantom's guns from above still trying to get a fix on our position. I eyed the Elites bodies, plasma grenades laying on the ground next to them. If I could grab one, activate it, and stick it to the engine of the Phantom, I'd be able to either destroy it, or damage it to a point where it's have to make a crash landing. I sprinted over, jumpping over the Banshees wreckage, summersaulting and grabbing one of the grenades, activated it, and chucked it at the spinning enignes propellers. The greande blew, taking the engine with it. I saw the blue flames slurt out of the opening. It started spinning and began falling towards the lake to the left of our position, splashing into the water, blowing into pieces. I turnned attention to the dying Brute Chieftain. I nodded towards Erdem, and he walked over, drawing his sidearm. He stuck it to the Brutes face and breathed a final swear word before sending the bullet into his head. Erdem twirrled the pistol around his finger like a cowboy and holstered it.

"Fan out, secure a perimeter" I said as I knelt next to the devie lying by the dead Elites. I then activated my comm. "This is Oscar Five-Seven, device secured, and it's a tad bit heavy. Over?"

"Roger that. Sending the Falcon in now. We're adding VTOL, heavy lift gear." Sarah replied via comm link.

"Much abliged. Oscar Fice-Seven out." I sat down on top of the Brute corpse and whistled a tune to myself. I looked around the forest seeing various birds scattered about, eyeing the remains of the Covenant that now lay dead, blood soaking the grass that they once stood on. I saw the Falcon after a few minutes, a cable attached to the bottom and a metal lift with straps on it to hold the recording device. I whistled over to the others and they helped me lift it up, which if Nick hadn't been there, would've been pretty hard. We set it down on the pallet as it hovered above, holding it down with the straps. I jumpped up onto the pallet and climbbed aboard the Falcon, the others following, and soon we were off.

"Thank you much." Said the technicion as we wheeled the recording device into the computer room. He took a cable attached to his monitor and plugged it into the side of the device, various codes appearing on the screen. "I can have this translated in a few minutes." He tapped the keys, and told no lies. Soon tghe screen was filled with english words, instead of symbols, and I read most of the chatter clearly.

Pilot 1: We've found it, but we're being followed. They're attacking us, and Yoncha has been hit.

Command: Get out of there, fast!

Pilot 1: I'm hit. There's no way I'll make it back in time. I'll upload the co-.

The signal was cut off, because we'd shot the other pilot down before he got the chance to report in again. I then had the techie switch to the camera mode, multiple pictures of Alpha base were displayed, along with highlights over the guards and AA systems.

"Good thing you boys stopped them before we'd all be screwed." Sarah said grinning.

"Yeah let's just hope it lasts..." The techie said as he peered at us.

"I'm sure every thing'll be fine." I replied placing a hand on his shoulder.

But it wouldn't be. Because I was about to discover something very wrong here on Reach. Something to do with Linda.


End file.
